Smoak meets Blake
by ushma15
Summary: Taking down Slade left Felicity with a strong desire to physically train. When she finds no help from her fellow Team Arrow members, she turns to Gotham's Robin. In the process Felicity finds herself in Office John Blake's crosshairs.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first attempt at writing, hopefully readers can at least comprehend it!

I am not an avid comic book reader, I apologize for any error in following the story lines. I've tried to fill in some back story to the best of my ability and I am always open to comments and criticism.

This is post season 2 finale for Arrow. In this story Batman, post Dark Knight Rises, trained John Blake (portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a little before leaving, Robin protects Gotham by himself in conjunction with the police.

I do not own DC, Arrow, or the Dark Knight series and this work is purely for entertainment.

* * *

Felicity Smoak was exhausted.

She was exhausted of no one letting her into the field because she couldn't defend herself physically.

She was exhausted of no one wanting to train her because they were too busy training amongst themselves and making excuses.

She secretly knew Oliver refused to train her because if he did he would have to let her into the field, something he wouldn't allow regardless of how much self-defense practice she put in.

So she considered her next best option, Sara Lance.

Sara had left with the League of Assassins a few months ago, lead by the Heir to the Demon. Team Arrow was back to fighting crime at night and bring Queen Consolidated to it's former glory during the day. After Isabel's personal vendetta against QC and allegiance with Slade made the news, the board members practically begged Oliver to take back his seat CEO. Felicity and Diggle reinstated themselves into their secret identities, life returning to how it used to be before Slade.

Almost, almost how it used to be, Felicity reminded herself. She could almost physically see the rock on his shoulders removed, after realizing he didn't need to be a killer to save his city, even with a man as strong as Slade. He wasn't brooding as much, she mused. His biggest concern finding his sister. He even made a stronger effort with QC, working late hours and actually paying attention through his daily meetings, ready to prove himself a deserving CEO.

Diggle found himself both afraid and excited at the prospect of having a child with Lyla. Their relationship survived war, different sides of a battle and even prison temporarily but this was the ultimate test. Felicity knew Diggle would be an amazing father, having already established his place as the older brother she never had.

Felicity would never admit to her team mates, but she struggled with nightmares. She found herself shaken awake at night with the feel of a cold blade tight against her throat. She remembered the fear she felt, even when she held the cure in her hands. A blade was quicker than her jab, she knew that, but she hoped Slade's conversation with Oliver would distract him. Lucky for her, it did, and she managed to inject him with the serum.

She wanted to be quicker, she wanted to be stronger. She wanted to be out in the field with the team without feeling like a burden, someone who needs to be protected every step of the way.

Oliver wasn't an option, he would lecture her, plus he was too busy training Barry.

Diggle was too busy hovering over Lyla.

Roy was brooding over Thea, and trying to find her in his spare time.

Hence Sara Lance.

* * *

Sara called Felicity periodically, regaling her with stories of the League, being sure to skip the nasty scar moments. One night after a partially long discussion regarding Gotham's "Batman" and his side-kick, Felicity eased her way into asking for Sara's guidance.

"You know, Felicity, I would help you but you're too cute to fight. The reason Oliver doesn't want you to become a fighter is purely to keep you away from it, because you're too innocent. The last thing he wants to do is bring another person to darkness", Sara advised. "He likes you as his eyes and ears, now his uncoordinated arms and legs", Felicity could practically hear the smirk.

"Well last I recall, I gained my first true scar saving you Ms. Badass, so the way I see it, you owe me! You know Sara, and if the one thing I've learned from the Lannisters it's that you should always pay back your debts", Felicity replied. "And to never sleep with your brother, because that's a secret that can bring down an epic fantasy Kingdom, well maybe bring down, no one knows since George isn't done writing the books. Who knows when that man will finishing, plus he's getting old, but he does not have the right to die without telling me how these dragons take back the throne!"

"Felicity, breathe, please. What do I owe you, and please don't bring incest into this, it's creepy enough Laurel and I both having slept with Oliver", Sara suggested.

"Teach me, help me learn at least enough kick-ass ability to be out in the field, not stuck in the Lair wondering when they'll be back home safe" Felicity pleaded.

"Why don't you use your skills to get in touch with Batman's sidekick? I hear was trained by Batman before hanging up the cape, one of the few men Ra's ah Ghul gets along with, as well as he can at least", Sara answered.

"You know, the last thing I want to do is accidentally blab Oliver's secret to someone else, he wasn't too happy last time. Well look how that turned out, he's training Barry these days!" Sara could practically hear the wheels turning in Felicity's head.

* * *

The next morning found Felicity organizing meeting notes for Oliver and secretly researching Gotham's crime-fighting duo. Batman had packed up his cape, and left the fighting to a man named Robin. She figured the best way to get his attention was thru a police liaison, the Detective Lance counterpart at Gotham, an officer John Blake.

"Are you sure that's enough coffee Felicity? It's only your second cup today and it's well past 10am." Oliver's voice interrupted Felicity's train of thought and she found hand covering her heart, trying to mask being caught by Oliver as surprise.

"Last I checked I was supposed to be worrying about your coffee intake, not the other way around, Mr. Queen. Since we've established I won't be getting fulfilling your caffeine cravings I'll just stick to helping you save the city, not that I can't help with those cravings too. Is that what it feels like when you see a bad guy? A craving? Because if it's the same way I attack a tub mint chocolate chip then I can understand why you love it so much", Felicity rambled.

"No, It's not a craving, Felicity." Oliver's eyes shone a lighter blue, matching his small smile, "It's simply rare to find you in a good mood before noon without a dose of caffeine or sugar."

"Just glad to be working in an Isabel-free building, Oliver," Felicity smiled, hoping to avoid giving herself away. "Here are your notes for the Board members meeting this afternoon, I'll get back to looking into our list. Hopefully we can take one more name off the list this week."

Oliver picked up the color-tabbed folder, squinted his eyes at Felicity's dismissal and walked into his office. She couldn't stay quiet for her, and he would be right there to listen when she cracked.

Felcity's research took her well into the evening, and somewhere around 3am she struck gold. Gotham was currently struggling with the kidnapping of a bank owner's daughter. The kidnappers had taken Robert Lansing's daughter with the condition that she would released upon receiving $10 million. The police were struggling to locate the girl, leaning towards handing over the money hoping the robbers stayed true to their world.

Felicity hacked her way into the satellites overlooking Gotham and video footage hoping to identify the culprits. One of the robbers had a very particular tattoo on his arm, an anchor wrapped around his left bicep. She ran thru footage of the area surrounding the park, hoping to find the vehicle the kidnappers used, to no avail. She widened her net to the local area and came across video footage of the same anchor tattooed arm purchasing what looked like Dora pajamas, an odd purchase for such a man. She hacked into the store's registry and found his credit-card number, further looking into his history and finding no evidence of similar purchases for a child's toys, clothes or even food. She was surprised Gotham police hadn't picked up on this information, but at least this gave her the opportunity she needed.

She figured 5am was late enough for her work-day, and proceeded to send Office Blane a encrypted email of her findings. Hopefully her IT skills would be enough to pique his interest and she could follow her information to Robin.

_Officer Blake,_

_For the city strengthened by Batman, you sure are struggling without him. The kidnapped daughter of Lansing has been missing for over 48 hours and you are still struggling with finding her, even when one of the kidnappers is caught on footage buying some Dora pajamas?! Besides, since when are Dora pajamas the lead you need to find your nabbers. Hopefully you'll find what you need in this video clip, found at a Walmart the night Lansing's daughter was taken. If you need any suggestions on how to upgrade your IT department, please let me know. I'd be doing a service to the community._

_Regards,_

_It Girl _

* * *

9am found Felicity Smock chugging her third cup of coffee and running into a visitor, at least according to his badge at the QC elevator. She stopped herself a little too late gasping at the brown stain working it's way into his former white shirt.

"I'm so sorry, I really hope I didn't ruin your shirt completely. Coffee isn't an easy stain to get out, unless you attack it immediately. Here why don't you take it off and I can clean it upstairs in my boss's bathroom? I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Wait did I just ask you to take your shirt off? Not that I don't want you to take your shirt off, I'm sure you look great with it off if the way it fits is any indication. One .. Two .. Three. My name is Felicity Smoak and I have a rambling problem."

Smiling chocolate brown eyes met hers as a hand reached out, "It's a please to meet you Ms. Smoak, I'm John Blake."


	2. Chapter 2

_6 months later_

Felicity found herself between a soft training mat and 150 pounds of toned muscle. John had her pegged to the mat after a long afternoon and she was just about ready to quit.

"Get up Smoak, your attacker isn't going to be planning during his attack, he's just going to attack. You have to be ready to do the same. Self-defense needs to be second nature", John reminded her as he lifted himself up and held out a helping hand.

Felicity swatted his hand away and wobbled herself up into a semi-standing wobbly position. "I think that's enough bruising for the day, Blake. I need to go spend my time with someone who won't remind mer how pathetic my physical strength is. At least in comparison", Felicity remarked, wiping herself off with a towel and shaking her head gently.

"You're better than when you started, and that's all that counts. Just go with your gut, it's all instinct as long as you learn to listen to it."

John and Felicity walked out of the gym and bid their goodbyes, as a beautiful sunset made its way down the Gotham skyline. Felicity walked to her car and started her hour long drive back to Starling City. She'd found herself accustomed to this drive she made a few times a week to meet with her "physical trainer". John Blake had come to find her like a little fish after she dropped her information hook. He'd been intrigued by her when she helped him solve the kidnapping case wanted to her personally thank her. She used this opportunity to request John's help. As a single girl living on her own with no major family around, she didn't have much of a male influence in her life, at least she suggested as such, and would really appreciate some training in self-defense. She also offered her own expertise when he showed hesitation. She appreciated that he didn't ask her too many personal questions, he simply helped her with training and was slowly becoming a good friend. An attractive friend, who made her smile, and actually cared about her, and it was hard to ignore how attractive he was when she found herself pinned to a mat by his ..

Felicity's inner monologue was rudely interrupted by the shrill sound of her cell phone, a phone call from her boss as indicated by the ringtone. "Felicity, where have you been? An alert has been going off on your computer for a few minutes, and you usually have it forwarded to your phone. Where could you possibly be that you can't answer? Even better, why can't Digg or I turn the stupid alert off?" Oliver ground out.

"I'm at a doctor appointment, I'll be there in a bit and I'll handle it." Felicity smoothly answered, already adding double-check forward alerts to phone to her mental to-do list. She found herself zooming along the highway well beyond the speed limit, rushing towards Starling City. She had worked too hard to keep her training from Digg and Oliver to ruin it now.

* * *

"Another girl's been taken, that's what the alert was for. Emma Drake has been missing since early this morning somewhere between when she left her apartment and didn't make it to her Calc lecture at SCU. That makes her the 5th girl taken in broad daylight in the past month. I've tried looking into the victims history, trying to find a matching thread but there isn't one. They have nothing in common besides being in their 20s." Felicity turned her chair around to find Roy punching the wall, Oliver pacing and Diggle calmly waiting for her to continue.

This missing persons case was a favor for Detective Lance who had reached out when the police department struggled. Young women were going missing during the day in the normal routines and there was no sign of them. They didn't show up on any cameras after they were taken, there was no ransom note delivered, all signs pointing to human trafficking. Felicity had used her own skills to hack into any camera within the state in hopes of finding a sign of these women, and came up short. Team Arrow was coming to a road block and they didn't know which way to go. She'd learned that Roy and Oliver excelled at putting the fear of god into a criminal, but didn't take so well to the investigations.

"We need to lure these guys out, I just don't know what they're looking for. All the women they've taken have been blonde with blue eyes. I could easily find myself in an empty back alley, all I need is a tracker and a gun." Felicity suggested, secretly congratulating herself that she was finally in a position to get out in the field.

"We don't know where they've being taken, who is taking them or what happens once their taken, Felicity. We don't know enough to even consider that plan, not to mention letting you play bait isn't even an option." Oliver grumbled out, still continuing to pace the floor.

Felicity opened her mouth ready with a protest when her phone rang again. She peaked at the name, John Blake, and hit ignore. He called her sometimes if he really needed help on a case, and she figured it could wait a moment.

She put her phone down on the desk and continued to run programs trying to find similarities between the victims, Oliver and Roy returned to their training and Diggle took off for the evening. It wasn't until she felt the exhaustion hit her that Felicity realized how long she'd been at her desk. She turned to find Roy and Oliver discussing the different arrow heads and decided to call it a night. She packed up her bag and remember John's phone call.

She unlocked her phone and found a new voicemail, "Felicity, I need your help. We've been struggling with a few missing persons cases, I was hoping you might be able to run that facial recognition software and help us. All of these cases are young women and it's starting to become a concern. On that note, I really think we need to discuss you buying a gun, or at least a big dog. I don't want you to become one of these cases Felicity. Call me when you get home tonight, at least so I know you're safe."


	3. Chapter 3

"I did some more digging into these girls and I found our common thread. They all participated in a casting call for a small role in a show being filmed on the SCU campus. They were looking for a blonde blue-eyed girl old enough to look like she's in college. The same movie is holding a casting call in Gotham, that's odd given the movie's being filled here. I'm thinking this casting call is just a selection progress, and they choose who to take here. They have another casting call later this week, that's our best opportunity." Felicity informed the trio.

"We can't exactly follow every single girl home and make sure she's safe. Even if we pick just the really attractive ones, we've got too many possible victims", Diggle reasoned, " So then let's find drift an easy target in front of them."

"I can do this, I can go undercover and at least get more information." Felicity volunteered. She didn't even finish the thought before she found Oliver's eyes turning a steel blue and his lips forming a thin line.

"You're not ready for this, not when we know almost nothing about where these girls are being taken or whose in charge, we don't know enough!" Oliver roared.

"Then let me go to the auditions just to figure out who is behind all this. At least let me see the process and the questions they are asking these girls, it'll give us someplace to start." Felicity reasoned.

* * *

The next night Felicity found herself in a cozy chair being interviewed by 2 men, they had introduced themselves as James and Charles. It was very unlikely their names were truthful given the leer she kept getting from James. They had asked her some very personal questions and her preferences when it came to the opposite sex. They reasoned the casting call was for a young co-ed in a new movie, and there would be a few sexually explicit scenes, they wanted to know how much she was prepared to give.

She did her best not to squirm or spit in their faces knowing what was behind this ruse. These men were absolutely disgusting and she was looking forward to seeing a few arrows, specially through the eyes.

* * *

Refiq Alim is the man we are looking for. "James" is actually Sahid Alim, Rafiq's younger brother and right-hand man. They are both part of a human trafficking ring from the middle east and have been of the UN's radar for a while. They've been hard to locate because they target small regions and by the time they figure out girls are missing they're long time. They never come to the same place twice, also making it difficult to connect them to the missing persons. They must be getting desperate if Sahid is coming to these things himself." Felicity informed them the next morning, following a long night of facial recognition following by hacking.

"My acting skills were surprisingly sufficient since I found them hacking into a few systems to do some background research into me. Turns out the fish's on the bait, we just need to reel it in. Or maybe a better analogy is the bait's in the water? Analogies are so difficult!"

What she didn't tell that was the long e-mail she sent to John detailing this exact information.

* * *

Felicity made her way into her bedroom after a long day of EA duties and arrow business. John and Oliver had taken down a corrupt cop tonight, and ended the night beating up a little harder than usual at the news regarding Rafiq. They didn't know which step to take when the enemy wasn't just one individual, when they struggled to find a proper trail to follow. It left a lot more work for Felicity, but there had to be information there for her to even find.

She changed into a bright pink tank top and blue boxer shorts, setting herself into bed and reaching for her tablet to see if any of her searches had come up with useful information.

An hour later she felt herself drifting and dozed off for the night.

Felicity awoke to a massive headache and couldn't feel most of her body. She tried to focus her blurry eyes onto a ceiling and it only took a moment to register she was not in her own bed, she was laying down on a lumpy mattress. She scooted herself up into a sitting position, and found herself shackled to a bed frame by chains.

Turns out her acting was better than she expected, and boy was she in trouble.


	4. Chapter 4

The air smelled stale, that was the first thing Felicity noticed. Wherever she was, it was far from the normal technology savvy world. There were no windows in her room, just a bed and a makeshift bathroom area with a bucket and a chair over it.

She had been bound on the bed for two days, and the door to her dark room had only opened twice. Once for someone to come in and take pictures of her, and the second time for some stale bread and horrible soup. Logically she understood why these things happened, but the violation of her privacy and her inability to stop these men from taking those pictures hurt her deeply.

There was a special place in the pits of hell for people who bought and sold other people, especially innocent young girls.

Her first day she frightened beyond words, and then she would figure it out.

She was Felicity Smoak.

She managed to prevent becoming her mother.

She managed not having a father growing up.

She managed getting into and graduating from one of the best IT programs in the country.

She managed to survive learning that Oliver Queen was the Arrow, and she was his partner.

She would manage this, how, she wasn't sure.

The shaking of the room startled her out of her thoughts, as she frantically assessed the room for any open access points for her to use to her advantage.

She felt a slight dizziness move over her gradually and her eyes widen in worry when she felt blood enter her field of vision, clouding her eyes with a red haze. She had knocked her head against something! She felt tired, she wanted to just close her eyes for a second.

* * *

Felicity awoke to absolute silence. There was a young man guarding the door, he seemed to look quite bored himself. Felicity asked him if she could use the restroom and he unlocked her chains from the bed and held onto them himself. Felicity had never felt so much anger and disdain in her life. She shuffled to the chair and closed her eyes, reminding herself to breathe.

The next second she flung her arms straight up and down, throwing her guard off balance. She whipped the chains around his neck like John had taught her, he had showed her with her arms but chains were much more effective. She tightened them until she felt his breathing quiver, and she looking him right in the eyes. She dropped to her knees, and slammed his head into the floor. She didn't want to kill him, just incapacitate him for a few minutes. Long enough for her to get out of here.

She waited for a moment until she felt his body go lax, and she slowly released the chains. Changes were he wasn't dead, she had just knocked him out for a moment. She reached over to hip where a small hand gun rested, and she picked it up with trembling hands. She managed to work the chains around her arms, preparing herself to use it as a whip if necessary, gun at the ready. She shuffled to the door of her room, praying with all her might that she could find these girls and get them home safely.

She opened the door and stumbled into a warm chest, she felt her heart jump into her throat until she moved her eyes to meet his. She had enough courage to at least face her attacker, she straightened to her full height as best as she could in her condition. Her blue eyes met a warm brown right before she found herself falling into a dizzying darkness.

* * *

There was a very bright light, beckoning her awake. She felt it, and it made her feel really warm. Maybe she should try to open her eyes, maybe she was with God. She was in seriously trouble if she was, she wasn't ready for this. She didn't eat well, she didn't clean up after herself, she sassed her mother and she didn't always celebrate Hanukkah with her family. She indulged in too many shoes, especially after her pay raise. She wasn't ready to face God!

"You're not facing God, Turbo. You're facing the very bright ceiling of a hospital room. Don't worry, you've got time to clean up your life right after you explain to me what you were thinking." John said, holding her hard with steady comfort, his eyes speaking a very different story. He looked more like the police officer he was than the trainer she had come to befriend.

"Four days, you send me information of a human trafficking issue that's made it's way from Starling to Gotham. The next day I found you mumbling about how you're going to research and take down said ring. After that day, you have disappeared off the face of the planet. What were you thinking, using yourself as bait? How did you think you escape that compound, much less that room the way you were chained down? There is a big difference between taking a risk because you think you might be able to make it, and taking a risk that is almost impossible! " John reasoned, as well as he could pacing the room that is.

"Wait, how did you find me? We've been trying to figure out the location of the compound for a very long time, there were too many possible girls to track and once they go missing they don't show up anywhere with a camera nearby. We've tried tracking Rafiq and Sahid but communicate using messengers, that's almost impossible to hack." Felicity reasoned, squinting her eyes at him in suspicion.

"The day you were mumbling about catching these guys, you were more distracted than usual. I might have used that to my advantage." John replied, not quite meeting her eyes.

"What exactly does that mean, John. What does that have to do with finding me?" Felicity asked, yet again confused as to where this was going.

"I might have injected a small micro transmitter into your thigh during our training. You were too distracting and complaining about how sore you were to really noticed." John mumbled, starting at her pillow with great interest.

"What?! Why would you do that?! That's an invasion of privacy!" Felicity yelled, throwing her arms around to emphasize her point.

"Clearly it came in handy. It took me one day to realize you weren't moving from one location, and that location wasn't your apartment or work. You weren't answering any of my calls and no one at work had seen you for a day." John reasoned, putting a lot more conviction in his words than he felt.

"So you came all by yourself? What about the other girls that have been taken? How are we going to find them?!" Felicity asked.

"Let's just say being a police officer has it's perks. I told my captain that information had come to me from a source on the inside, the location of this trafficking ring. We managed to raid and save about 8 girls that were taken. They haven't been in Gotham long enough, it seems. Most of the men we took out looked like henchmen, the big fish are a little more difficult to find. It seems Gotham has made an international enemy." John informed.

"I'm too tired to get angry at you right now, but after some rest and a mint chocolate chip IV, you and I are going to discuss boundaries. I can't believe you did that, I trusted you!" Felicity yelled, with as much conviction as she could muster.

"You can yell at me all you want later. You've proven yourself quite capable, taking down your guard. I just wish you had thought it through as to how you could have made it out of there. That gun you took didn't have a silencer! Did you really think your path would have been so easy?" John questioned.

"I can handle myself just fine," Felicity reasoned.

"I'm just glad to have you safe and sound, Felicity. But tomorrow we are going to have a long discussion on how to risk assessment." John stated.

"As long as you spring me from this joint." Felicity smiled.


	5. Chapter 5

Felicity awoke to an odd tension in the room.

"Who are you and why was I not called when my assistant was taken to the hospital?" She heard Oliver roar, frighteningly close to his Arrow voice.

"You aren't on her emergency contact information and no one had any reason to doubt you needed your assistant on a week, Mr. Queen, I suggest you calm down before you wake up Felicity." She heard John inform Oliver, surprisingly holding his own against Oliver.

"Where was she taken? Is she okay? I need to see for myself!" She felt an Oliver shaped blur hover over her as she opened her eyes, squinting her eyes against the bright lights.

"I'm fine, Oliver. Now please find me my glasses so I can explain what happened." Felicity suggested, leaving no room for hesitation.

Once Oliver retrieved her glasses, she felt 3 pairs of eyes trained on her.

"After we did some research and determined that these women were being selected through their movie audition process, I might have auctioned myself and presented myself as a good target. Later that evening as I was going home, I felt like someone was watching me and I informed John. The next thing I know, I wake up with a headache and somewhere that isn't my own room. I don't remember how long I was going, it felt like days. Eventually I found an opportunity to escape, it happened to be as Gotham's PD was breaking into the compound and well here I am." Felicity informed the trio, doing her best to avoid Oliver's gaze. She could almost feel his body vibrate with the need to go punch something.

"Why didn't you feel the need to informed Diggle or me about this, Felicity?" Oliver growling out, doing his best impression of a bear.

"Because you two would have let me do it. You two refuse to accept that I am capable of more than IT work."

"That's not true, we just want you to be safe and sound. You mean far too much to me, I don't want you out there in the middle danger." Diggle informed, always the sensible one.

"She's actually more than capable of taking care of herself. She's an excellent marksman she's managed to learn some excellent boxing technique. She started out with a defensive approach, but she's surprisingly better. Felicity has a strong inner drive, you just need to give it a place to go. I think you both strongly under estimate your resident IT assistant, Queen." John informed Diggle and Oliver, throwing Felicity a soft smiling.

"Who are you again, and why are still here?" Oliver asked, reminding Felicity a little of child throwing a tantrum.

"I'm John Blake, and I'm Felicity's friend." John informed, reaching out to shake hands with Diggle and Oliver.

Diggle reached out with no hesitation, Oliver sized him up as they addressed each other.

"John, do you mind getting me a snack from the cafeteria. The food they've been feeding me isn't exactly making this recovery easier. I need some mint chocolate chip." Felicity asked John.

"Sure thing, Turbo. I'll be right back." John replied, closing the door behind himself.

"What were you thinking Felicity? You never go anywhere without back up. What were you trying to prove using yourself as bait with men running an international human trafficking ring? This isn't a single person. They could have taken you anywhere in the world. They could have done anything to you. We had no idea where you were, you left us with nothing to work with. Explain yourself, explain before I throttle you and hug you in one beat." Oliver asked, doing his best to get these words out through gritted teeth.

"I see the same things you two see when you go and fight. You two take your anger and frustration out when you practice and hit the dummies, or even on our bad guys. I don't get that, I bottle it up. I know you two don't have the time to train me, you refuse. Because if you train me then there's no excuse for me not to be out in the field. You two refuse to accept that I'm just as angry about this city as you two are. So I took it upon myself to do things my way. I met John, he's an officer with Gotham PD. He's the liaison between Gotham and their hero, Robin. He's been training me for months and he was my backup. I showed him mine and he showed me his." Felicity informed the two, doing her best to keep calm knowing their reactions.

"I'm sorry that you felt that you couldn't come to us Felicity, but I understand why you didn't. We aren't objective when it comes to you, we want you safe. I'm glad you found your faith in someone else and I'm more than willing to help you now if you need it. If there's anything I should have learned from Lyla, it's that a strong woman is more than capable of taking care of herself when she puts her mind to it. All I see is your smile, I forget that under that you see the same horrors we see." Diggle replied, reaching over to give Felicity's hand a tight squeeze, his eyes shining.

"All I want for you is safety and happiness. I hoped you were never in the position to have to defend yourself, but clearly we've been proven wrong. The best we can do is train you well enough to handle it. How much does John know about you?" Diggle informed, shooting a glace over at Oliver's blank expression.

"He knows that I help Starling's vigilante because I'm great with computers, that's about it. We both seem to have a lot in common." Felicity answered.

"So we weren't good enough for you, you didn't trust us? So you asked someone else for help? How do you know you can trust this guy felicity? How do you know?" Oliver asked, swiftly pacing the hospital room.

"Because my relationship with him has nothing to do with the Hood. He looks at me and sees more than someone who can Google efficiently for him. He sees more than an assistant. I know you say we're your partners, but Oliver you take on more for yourself than any of us do. We gave up just as much for this as you did, the consequences are only visible to you sometimes. John knows nothing of who you are, I plan on keeping it that way. Not everything I do is about the Hood!" Felicity informed Oliver, starting to turn a light pink from exhaustion.

"I told you Felicity, you can come talk to me about your day. I'm here for you, always. You know that." Oliver's tone softened, as his hand reached out to engulf her shoulder in an all too familiar move.

"That's just it Oliver, I can't come to you. You've been training Barry and Roy, running Queen Consolidated and searching for Thea. The last thing you need is more people to be worrying about." Felicity informed in a quiet voice.

"You are just as important as all of those things, Felicity. I will always be here, don't ever doubt that." Oliver informed, reaching down and squeezing her free hand.

* * *

Felicity awoke to a doctor, coming in and checking on her vitals. Her body was still recovering from the drug combinations running through her system, it would take another day before she was cleared to go home. She had finally shoved John and Diggle out of her room, Oliver had run out to get them Big Belly for lunch. She reached over for her tablet, hoping to catch some quick Netflix before Oliver returned with their lunch. She had recently started tracking Robin's activity in Gotham and came across an article about the raid at the trafficking compound. She continued her search on Robin, hoping to come across a traceable connection between Detective Blake and Robin. After what felt like a thorough search, Felicity came up short, frustrated.

A quick thought crossed her mind and she rushed to find evidence to back up her idea. A few moments and a strong fist pump later, Felicity smiled widely at the light rose wallpaper of her hospital room. She loved when she solved a mystery!

She reached over the table, quickly finding the name she was looking for.

"You know, for a secret hero, you haven't done a very good of hiding yourself. Then again, I might just be that good."


End file.
